BBC marketing head admits W1A's satirical rebrand 'cursed' the new BBC Three logo

BBC’s brand revamp for the now online-exclusive channel BBC Three has sparked a fair share of mockery online after it echoed a BBC refresh put forward in satirical comedy W1A.

BBC Three

BBC Three’s new roman numeral logo launched today (shown above) closely resembles the BBC logo put forward in W1A, a comedy series and follow up to Twenty Twelve, a series which scathingly mocked London's marketing culture.

Jessica Hynes’ portrayal of Siobhan Sharpe as a representative from fictional marketing agency Perfect Curve, to some, paralleled the new branding designed to attract BBC Three's historically young audience.

Nikki Carr, head of marketing at the BBC, anticipated that W1A's humour could reflect badly on the rebrand from Red Bee, she said in a blog post: “Thanks to W1A we're cursed at the BBC when it comes to marketing and I don’t want to come across all Siobhan Sharpe but forgive me some lingo.

“The visual identity brings new BBC Three together - a new logo, new idents, new animations and new on screen presentation, all with a new colour pallet. This visual identity will underpin what we do in the future.”

Rebrands often come under harsh scrutiny initially and Carr admitted there have been several critiques such as: “It looks like Adidas”, “it looks like a “hamburger menu icon,” “it doesn’t even say three”, “are they Roman numerals”.

The new BBC Three logo looks to me more like an excited logo for BBC Two.

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